Losing weight is about creating healthier behaviors. But it's not always so simple, and it almost always comes down to the hundreds of daily choices we make in the moment. For instance, whether we choose to eat an apple or a slice of apple pie, or whether we bike to work or drive. Those micro choices make up our lives.

In the journal Environment and Behavior, Brian Wansink, a food psychologist at Cornell University, reported that people make almost 250 food decisions every day, not including decisions about physical activity. If you can take control of all those daily micro choices, you could increase your likelihood of losing weight.

To do this, you need to make a list of the decisions you make most often about both food and physical activity because these micro choices are usually based on memory. According to research reported in the Journal of Consumer Research, there are two types of in-the-moment choices — memory-based and stimulus-based.

 When you make a memory-based choice, you do not think too much because you're relying on information you already have. For instance, if you're at supermarket deciding which snack to purchase, you're likely to go for the high-calorie choice because you know you like it. These choices are generally "automatic, rapid, associative and affective." They involve little thought.

 Stimulus-based decisions involve thought, so you're more likely to make a conscious decision and choose a healthier snack. Stimulus-based choices are "controlled, slow, deliberative and deductive." It may sound counterintuitive, but it doesn't mean buying chocolate ice cream because it looks good and you remember liking it. Without this memory, you'd think before buying: a stimulus-based decision.

 To avoid making unhealthy, impulsive, "memory-based" decisions you need to think about your micro choices ahead of time, rather than in the moment, so making healthy choices will be part of your automatic behavior.

Another way to make better micro choices is to link the behavior you want to change to things you already do and determine when, where and how you will implement your new choices. The thing you already do becomes the trigger for putting your new intention into action.

Try the following:

1. Think about some of the micro choices you make each day regarding food and activity.

2. Write down as many of the more common ones you can think of so that you stay focused so you're better prepared for food-related situations like supermarket shopping, evening snacks in front of the TV, office lunch time or midmorning snacks. Think about times when you can increase your activity for more exercise, such as walking to work. Use your feet as much as possible.

3. Create an implementation intention along with a new, desired behavior for each of these situations and set triggers to prompt the intended action.

4. Write down your choices and your triggers to help put these concepts into your memory so they can become automatic.

Charles Stuart Platkin is a nutrition and public health advocate, founder of www.DietDetective.com.